Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Few young performers in any genre can say they
match both Nick Black’s energy and finesse. The wont of musical youth is
usually casting as many notions about lightness of touch as possible in favor
of a full on, authentic rush. The energy of the young often throttles listeners
upside their heads with its obviousness. Nick Black, instead, is working in a
cross-section of traditional styles and pushes his music through an assortment
of tempos and tropes with urgency that never comes off as unconsidered. It’s an
awesome balance to achieve. Few releases from such young performers ever come
off so filler-free. Even after a few listens, Black’s audience is likely to
discover that there’s not a single song out of the ten compromising Deep Blue
has style to burn and concerted musical value that never comes off as posing.
Instead, Nick Black comes off as masterful.

Horns dominate much of the musical thrust on Deep
Blue’s opener “Ocean” and Black sings with great earnestness and an openness of
spirit. The dance that his voice quickly achieves with the piano lines
cascading through the mix is the song’s central melodic pivot, in a way, but
the guitar work rising out of the mix for some vivid fills likewise contributes
much to the song. “Grownups” starts off not seeming quite as serious in intent,
but it’s clear pretty quickly that Black’s ambitions here and those of the
songwriting might be a little subtler than they are letting on. This is as fine
of a song as you’ll hear about an one on one relationship in some time because
it does something just different enough that it sounds fresh. Black seems quite
happy to be singing it and gives it a certain zing on the lines that the opener
lacked. “Falling in Life” probably tries to cover too many musical bases, but
it thankfully doesn’t go on too long in duration and the level of musicianship
remains high throughout.

“D.I.Y.” has a world of emotions swirling through
its ballad construction and Black proves that he’s just as adept with this type
of songwriting under the soul and R&B umbrella as he is with other types in
the same genre. “Only One Man” begins at a much more sumptuous pace than it
ends and the differences make for a much more dynamic performance. The second
half, in particular, shows a surprising amount of fire primarily pushed by lead
guitar playing that whips through the mix like a fanning flame. “Let’s Be
Glad”, on the other hand, puts Black squarely in the land of gospel music and
he pulls it off admirably. Few of the album’s songs utilize backing singers, but
this is naturally one of the most successful instances of their use on Deep
Blue. Another fine ballad on Deep Blue is “Don’t Leave Louise” – Black never
risks melodramatic nonsense here and the form the song takes makes him dodging
its likelihood all the more surprising. Instead, both lyrics and singer are a
perfect fit here and Black shows the good sense to resist cluttering the
direct, beautiful arrangement. Deep Blue is a vast improvement on Black’s
already fine debut The Soul Diaries and shows that this performer’s potential
is, perhaps, far vaster than anyone initially understood.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Formula serves singer/songwriter Dave Vargo
extraordinarily well on his first solo album Burning Through. Based out of the
New Jersey area, he definitely cuts the album’s eleven songs in a meat and
potatoes mold that eschews musical fireworks in favor of melodic virtues and
emotional truth. It is the saving grace elevating Vargo’s performance over pre
packaged fluff. There’s more though. He projects vast oceans of feeling with
some vocals and his phrasing takes a distinctive approach that puts a
figurative face to his finest moments. The production places his voice and the
album’s instrumentation in equal prominence with one another and the result is
an impressively unified sound that never sounds wayward or uninspired. Dave
Vargo’s songs on Burning Through sound like the kind of material that’s waited
a lifetime to emerge in this way and some of the songwriting on this release
seems to reinforce that view.

A lot of that fire and chest-thumping energy comes
across early. The first song “Come Take Me Home” makes its pleas for the
audience’s attention without any pretense or wasted motion and should suck in
anyone who hears it. It’s impressive to hear how well Vargo, as a composer, can
bring together various elements of light and shade into a credible rock track
while surrendering none of his substance as a lyricist. “Good Enough” is an
effort of equal value. It move at a little more a slow burn than the opener and
shares, arguably, more in common with the album’s later gestures towards rock
music without indulging any of the guitar workouts. “Wishing on a Star” is an
affecting personal-sounding piece about how our desires and dreams inspire us
early and sustain us for years to come. “Finding My Way to You” is, easily, the
most outwardly stirring moment on Burning Through and grabs the audience’s
attention from the start. It’s never strident or too strong, however, and
accomplishes much of its positive effects through another of Vargo’s
uncomplicated and often heart clutching melodies. His lead guitar work shines
quite brightly on this song.

“Right Now” will bring you more and more into its
world with repeated listens. Burning Through is an album that makes a big deal
about connecting with the listener, but closer inspection will reveal countless
subtleties in these songs. This particular cut does a memorable job of
balancing sensitivity with embodying some of the urgency suggested by its title
while contrasting it with a comparatively restrained Vargo singing performance.
“Twisted and Bent” is, easily, the album’s most naked musical performance, but
he is more than up to the task and its storytelling values help the song stand
out even more. “Don’t Think Twice” finds him branching out a little musically
without ever going too far afield of the album’s mandate and the variations are
welcome. Burning Through concludes with the fine “Pieces of My Heart” and its interesting
rhythms and tempo changes aid Vargo in getting the lyric over with his
audience. Formula is very recognizable here, but Vargo is never content with
just reworking some common poses and pandering for our attention.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Produced by the respected Robyn Robins,
former member of Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet Band, the debut album from Brent
Daniels poises this singer and guitarist for big things. The twelve songs on
Every Road Has a Turn mix boisterous country-infused rockers with serious, more
traditionally minded country tracks with catchy choruses. Daniels’ voice
combined with the overall quality of the tunes is a winner in a crowded genre
and the few lulls heard during the album are far more matters of taste than any
quantifiable flaw. Robins’ production has every bit of the oomph and sparkle
listeners will expect and clearly positions Daniels’ voice as the heart of each
performance. Every Road Has a Turn feels like a concerted effort to launch
Daniels’ career off with a major push and his vocal and interpretative talents
deserve such treatment.

“My First Friday Night” leaves no doubt
that Daniels and the team behind him means business. This is as well crafted of
a country song as you are likely to hear these days, grounded in universal
details of human lives, and carries on the songwriting traditions of classic
country music in a thoroughly modern context. The lyrics are sung by a
vocalist, likewise, who draws strength, unintended or otherwise, from the
genre’s long tradition while having an identifiable stamp of his own to leave
on the songs. He’s got a virtually guaranteed hit with the big radio number “My
Truck’s Bigger Than Your Truck”. We’ll leave the double meanings of such things
for the psychologists to sort out and it isn’t a song that requires a lot of
nuance from a very capable singer, but the song is certainly dumb fun that
doesn’t demand anything from listeners except having a good time. Despite the
“country” subject matter, the song is much close to outright rock than anything
else on this debut.

“Love You Down” has a nice mid tempo pace applying just the right amount of
force to the performance and it picks up nicely at the chorus. Another
enormously appealing part of the performance is the cool confidence Daniels
shows with a good emotional shade added for extra measure. He hits a
particularly excellent note with the song “Everything About You”, one of the
more rhythmic musical tracks on Every Road Has a Turn, and modulates his voice
appropriate to help realize the song’s potential. The bluster and brass in
earlier songs like “My Truck’s Bigger than Your Truck” completely vanishes on
tracks like “Hold On”. Some might hear a certain amount of predictability or
imitation in songs like “Hold On”, but listen closely and you’ll hear the
differences between Daniels and many of his peers. Great singers bring a
certain amount of charisma to their performance that shapes the color and
delivery of individual lines. You hear that in the naked vulnerability of
Daniels’ phrasing on this song. It’s just as present in the song “Different
Just the Same” and Daniels benefits even more there from some of the album’s
best lyrics. Every Road Has a Turn’s concluding number “I’ve Been Gone” recalls
the classic country songwriting turns of earlier songs like the opener and
brings the album to an end with the same confidence defining it. This is one
hell of a first effort from Daniels and he’ll be able to build from this work
for some time to come.

Discovered by renowned producer Robyn
Robins, thirty year old Michigan native Nick Dakota’s debut album Vision
features a dozen songs with many written by top flight Nashville songwriting
talent and accompanied by some of the best live and session players that Music
City has at its disposal. The album is geared for commercial success, but it
reflects a lot of what compromises Dakota’s character as a man. The
commercially oriented fare never outright panders to country music fans but,
instead, presents musical and lyric elements sure to resonate with the widest
of possible country music audiences. The album is a little over-extended with a
dozen songs when, perhaps, only ten would do, but the added songs don’t weigh
the release down much. Instead, Vision is as solid as of a debut as you’re
likely to hear in any genre and, in modern country music, Nick Dakota stands
out as one of the most exceptional talents to come along in some time.

It gets off to a great start with the
jewel “We’ll Always Have Paris (Texas)”. This is a slightly elegiac track with
a relaxed pace and Dakota shows a great knack for embodying the emotions of the
lyric in his voice without ever being hamfisted about it. His turn on “How Cool
is That?” possibly makes the whole album. He does a superb job of making the
listener see the object of his affection depicted in the lyrics. The down to
earth details mix nicely with much bigger, more general emotions and Dakota
wraps his voice tightly around the instrumentation with great effect. He turns
away from modern textures to recall a much more traditional country sound on
the ballad “One Last Request”, but the steel guitar and patient unwinding of
the track are far from its only merits. The true highlight of the track is
Dakota’s profoundly moving, deeply emotive vocal and he elevates the fine
lyrics to another higher level by virtue of his performance. “The Deep End” has
a bluesy bite thanks to its insistent electric slide guitar licks and Dakota’s
rugged vocal matches up with it very well. The chorus is one of the album’s
best.

“Used” is a fantastic study in musical
contrasts that impressively come together. The verses have a light touch, the
instruments scattered and leaving a lot of space for the music to breathe,
before the energy level spikes for another great chorus. “Rain Down Sunshine”
has a a great rock vibe thanks to its combination of acoustic and electric
guitars plus authoritative drumming that never plays a note too many. There’s a
fabulous uplift in this track, as well, that will likely make it a live
favorite. The album’s last song “Sledge Hammer” has an unique sound, slightly
crazed bluegrass cut with a dash of rock music, and ends Vision with a colorful
exclamation point. Vision establishes Nick Dakota as one of the genre’s promising
young talents and songs like the finale pave the way for a wide future. Any
lulls in the album are due to there being a few too many songs, particularly
mid-tempo rock influenced country tracks, but those lulls don’t compromise the
album too much.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Andriana
Lehr might originally hail from a small farm in South Dakota, but there’s
nothing small town about her songwriting or musical talents. Her latest release
Artifacts builds on the promise she exhibited on her 2013 debut Try to Be True
while still showing every bit of the influences that have shaped her into the
performer she is today. Her decade spent in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, a
traditional hotbed for talented singers and songwriters, has honed her potential
to a sharp edge and she has both the sound judgment and technique to
increasingly realize her artistic ideas. The ten songs on Artifacts never
content themselves with a single pose or line of musical adventure. Instead,
she fearlessly incorporates unexpected instruments into her template and sets
them against unlikely instrumental counterparts. Classical meets country, folk
gets a light R&B tinge, and her ear for inventive vocal melodies seems to
be unerring.

“Outrun
the Change” puts listeners on notice that a lot has changed and more is in the
offing. In some ways, this is a song that covers no new territory – plenty of
young artists have written about the accompanying shifts that come with growing
older and leaving childhood behind. What separates Lehr from her peers on this
track and others is the melancholy she invests this with, but the deeper
understanding as well. Her aims are deceptively modest. By merely communicating
the realities of her life and inner weather, she seemingly makes music for herself
alone, but by communicating these things so directly, the song achieves an
universality that reaches far beyond the borders of the autobiographical. This
applies to many of the songs on Artifacts.

“Ready
To Be”, the album’s second track, is similar in intent, but it takes a little
bit wider of a view lyrically. The quasi-shuffle of Steve Goold’s drumming
gives Lehr a great rhythmic base to sing over and she takes full advantage of
it. The languid unraveling of “Ashes in the Fog” is about, in some respects,
finding clarity in a life and world where things aren’t always clear or present
themselves as they. How do you deal with that, how do you move on? Lehr finds
no real answers, but perhaps those answers are here for listeners to discover
and remain unspoken. Ken Wilson’s evocative, haunting dobro playing gives the
song a second “vocal” that neatly complements Lehr’s own. The tenor sax making
an appearance on “Bright Yellow Lights” gives this track a smoky, late night
quality that it might otherwise lack and the reverb-soaked guitar work further
accentuates that. Though Lehr brings a bevy of talented collaborators to work
with her on this album, none of the tracks are a showcase of their virtuosic
skills and, instead, musicians like saxophonist J.P. Delaire and guitarist
Bryan Ewald are much more concerned with serving the song.

“The
Expansion of Everything” ends the album on the same daring note that has
characterized so much of it. Pedal steel and cell co-exist easily together with
Lehr’s folkie acoustic guitar and she delivers another stunning vocal that puts
a bright spotlight on her exquisite phrasing. Artifacts is the sort of album
that all around music fans will enjoy and continue returning to for some time –
it isn’t reined in by silly labels or an unwillingness to take chances.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

The
Tinker’s Dream, Chris Murphy’s third album since May of 2016, is a new high in
the career of this New York City born songwriter and recording artist. There’s
a dozen tracks on his latest album, the vast majority of them instrumentals,
and Murphy’s capacity for crafting fine melodies that linger in the memory is
virtually unparalleled in the modern music world. They are top shelf in every
respect. These aren’t the sort of simple, condensed melodies that hook into
listeners at a shallow depth; their genuine catchiness reflects the skill of
their composer and the vital urgency with which they are delivered ensures that
they aren’t soon forgotten. Murphy’s worked with the cream of the crop in the
singer/songwriter genre, but also sterling instrumental talents, and he brings
an unique confluence of those two schools to bear on his solo work. The twelve
compositions on The Tinker’s Dream soar with virtuosity and solid fundamentals
while still speaking to our emotions and experiences.

Songs
like “Connemara Ponies” are especially geared to engage our imaginations. It
isn’t a stretch to say that, in reality, Chris Murphy isn’t in the music
business at all when he’s performing a song this powerful. Instead, he’s in the
transportation business and “Connemara Ponies” moves listeners from the
quantifiable world around them and, instead, invokes panoramic landscapes and
enormous green vistas where majestic animals run free. The title number picks
up some on that same vibe, but it isn’t quite as dramatic and feels a little
more earthbound. It does share some of the same energy and it’s a pair of songs
like this early on that helps The Tinker’s Dream get off to such an uplifting
start. Murphy’s first venture into singer/songwriter territory on the album,
“Wicklow”, has a pretty standard but solid lyric that he delivers with just the
right amount of relaxed, almost laconic personality. The musical arrangement is
never subservient to the singing, lyrics, or vocal melody and Murphy proves
just as adept handling this sort of material as ever.

“Gibraltar
1988” is, arguably, the most spartan musical recording on The Tinker’s Dream
and doesn’t front load the song with a bevy of instruments or breathless pacing
like many of the other tracks. There’s a definite melancholic note struck here,
but it doesn’t dominate the track or its mood. The second stab at the
singer/songwriter genre comes with “Cape Horn”, a much more elaborate and
ultimately more successful revision of the earlier song “Wicklow”. The
similarities between the two song’s lyrical themes are not uniform and Murphy
conjures up a much strong first person voice for this outing than the previous
one. “Small Wonder” is the final track with lyrics on The Tinker’s Dream and it
is a distinctly different trip than the preceding two. This is much more a song
about interpersonal relations than the storytelling focus of the earlier tracks
and has a much better, more memorable, chorus. The album closes out with “The
Hayloft Waltz”, a wonderfully elegant instrumental that ends The Tinker’s Dream
on the same upbeat note that started the album.

About Me

Student at University of Oregon. Persuing a degree in Jornalism and Marketing. Writing Intern for Indie Music Media LLC based out of Seattle, WA. I enjoy writing music reviews that are informative, honest and positive.